1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a swab testing device that is suitable for use in experimenting a swab test to inspect sanitary condition of apparatus, materials, equipments, instruments, cookware and any other items to be used in food manufacturing and processing plants and restaurants' kitchens, to thereby prevent any bacteriological contaminant to be incorporated into foods. Such a device may also be used to inspect sanitary condition of worker fingers. The present invention also relates to a novel swab testing method by using such a device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Sanitary condition of apparatus, materials, equipments, instruments, cookware and any other items to be used in food manufacturing and processing plants and restaurants' kitchens must be inspected to examine and prove bacteriological or microbiological safety of foods. Since workers' hands and fingers may also be bacteriologically or microbiologically contaminated, even after being washed, sanitary condition of workers' hands and fingers should also be inspected. Such inspection is in general experimented to inspect the number of microbe, particularly colon bacilli in foods. In some case, further inspection is experimented to inspect the number of staphylococcus aureus and yeast funges. Mold test may optionally be carried out.
Swab test has been widely used as one of typical inspection measures. Swab test is usually carried out by the steps of preparing a cotton swab or gauze sterilized in 1 ml of 0.1% peptone incorporated saline, swabbing down a surface of an item to be inspected with the sterilized cotton swab or gauze, containing the cotton swab or gauze into a container bottle together with 9 ml of 0.1% peptone incorporated saline, and shaking the bottle to stir the mixture to prepare a test sample. This manner of the swab test method, however, is troublesome and could not provide reliable results when carried out in most of small-scaled plants and restaurant's kitchen having no well-equipped laboratory.
The swab test has also been carried out clinically to swab down an affected part on nose, ear or throat with a sterilized cotton swab or gauze to collect a sample. The conventional clinical swab test method comprises the steps of collecting a sample with a sterilized cotton swab or gauze, immersing the cotton swab or gauze with phosphoric buffer in a test tube, and urging the cotton swab or gauze to contact under pressure with the inner wall of the test tube, during ascend of the cotton swab or gauze, thereby squeezing the sample out of the cotton swab or gauze into the buffer. This manner of the clinical swab test method is also troublesome and skill-requiring operation.
A swab testing kit or device, disclosed in Japanese utility model registration No. 3,000,661 comprises a container containing a diluent and provided with a section having a decreased inside diameter, a cap detachably mounted on an opening of the container, a stick secured to or integral with the cap, and a cotton swab attached to a leading end of the stick and immersed in the diluent when the cap is mounted on the container opening. During drawing-up operation of the cap after being detached from the container, the diluent or sample liquid impregnated with the cotton swab is squeezed to be removed therefrom and collected again into the diluent when the cotton swab passes through the decreased inside diameter section of the container. More specifically, when the container is first uncapped, an excessive amount of the diluent contained in the cotton swab is removed therefrom, so that the cotton swab suitably wetted with the diluent may be used for swab test operation. After completing the swab test, the cotton swab containing the sample liquid is inserted into the container through the opening that is then closed with the cap. During such capping operation, an appropriate amount of the sample liquid contained in the cotton swab is removed therefrom to drop down into the diluent in the container.
This swab testing kit or device has been found to be very useful, because a swab test may be achieved by simple operation, even by unskilled person and even at small-scaled plants and restaurant's kitchen with no laboratory.
With the above-described prior art swab test kit or device, it becomes very easy to carry out the swab test and collect a sample liquid that can expect a reliable test results. However, even with this kit or device, it is necessary that the sample liquid in the container, after being uncapped, is pipetted into a culture medium in a laboratory dish or tube. Otherwise, the uncapped container is tilted to discharge some amount of the sample liquid out of the container into the culture medium. In any way, it is very difficult to pipette a required amount of the sample liquid. The former operation requires a pipette longer enough than a distance from the opening of the container to the level of the sample liquid. The latter operation requires tilting of the uncapped container with scrupulous attention, otherwise a greater amount of the sample liquid is discharged from the container to overflow the laboratory dish or tube.